You are right. They are some wonderful memories that make me really appreciate what I have today.
For the younger fliers, Jim Kirkland was one of the top RC fliers in the 60's and early 70's. Shortly after retiring from the Air Force, he suffered a fatal heart attack while unloading a 55 gallon drum of model airplane fuel.
Chuck Anderson
At 09:44 AM 12/26/2004, you wrote:
Hey, guys we actually did have airplanes similar to what you describe in the early days. Full on full off controls and limited flight functions. We did have to put in much more effort to get airborne than just "open a box" however. :^0
My first experience in RC was back in high school. Where a neighbor and my memory is vague on this, but I believe his name was Bob who was an electrical engineer at Texas Instruments, helped me get started in this wonderful hobby. Without his help it may never had happened. The system he selected for me to put together comprised an Ace Commander transmitter with the pulse conversion kit, which I assembled that he debugged and tuned, a Citizenship SSH single channel receiver and an Adams Dual magnet actuator.
I can remember at least a couple of nights in his shop, him at the oscilloscope and me walking up and down the alley with the debugged and now functioning x-mitter, tuning the receiver. This equipment was installed in a Top Flight Schoolmaster with a Cox Medallion .049. BTW, at his urging, I built the Schoolmaster without the landing gear to reduce weight which really seemed weird to me at the time. In flying mode the engine ran and the airplane climbed until it was out of fuel. The airplane was trimmed to climb under power and glide without zooming up or down in each flight mode. To prevent a zoom and subsequent stall rudder inputs were used to turn the aircraft out of the zoom before the stall occurred.
The Adams actuator provided rudder only control. The rudder banged from side to side continuously at neutral and we found later that the best control was available by using the full right/left buttons, even though the conversion kit supposedly provided "proportional control". How long the button was held determined the amount of control input. The radio gear, with assembly manuals, and the engine are still with me in my "can't throw out box".
Many days of wonder and enjoyment watching and flying that airplane are still in my memories. Now that I know what I know about thermal soaring I had some flights where I thermal soared that little rig. Yes, the initial days of trimming and setup were frustrating for a young man in high school, but it taught me what is required to successfully accomplish a complex project. This is lacking in our now instant gratification society, aka, just hit the reset button and all is repaired.
It was truly different many years later after college when I came back to the hobby and bought my first four channel proportional radio system for only about twice as much as I spent on that original radio! With all the wonderful memories, challenges, and accomplishments this hobby has provided, I am truly indebted to that neighbor.
Hope all had a wonderful Christmas and your New Year is to your expectations. Now to go out and fly it's supposed to be in the 50's today with light winds here in Texas.
Mark W.
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